Alpha and Omega: (Un)Dead Park - Part 4
by DariaAlpha
Summary: A prequel to my third zombie story, this is about Banff and how the zombie outbreak there took Banff before spreading to Jasper Park. It begins with a wolf getting hurt on a hunt in the forest near Banff, but the truth is eventually learned (despite the rogues doubting the zombies' existence) when all hell breaks loose, only leaving a small group of survivors behind to survive.
1. Prologue: Unexpected Visitor in Jasper

**Author's note:** Okay, I know I said that Undead Park 3 would be the last one in the series, but I thought of something that was mentioned in all three stories (even if the first and second are only dreams) but I never actually went into detail about. The mention of the zombie outbreak in Banff and how all of the rogues supposedly died. So I am writing a fourth _Undead Park_ that is a prequel to the third story. This will only focus on the rogues, except for in the prologue and the last chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue:<strong>

**Unexpected Visitor in Jasper**

It was mid-Fall in Jasper Park, Canada, when the Alpha female of the United Eastern and Western Packs suddenly heard rumors of a lone wolf being spotted at the border of the Eastern and Western Territories. So now, Kate (that Alpha female) was heading to the border of the territory with her mate Humphrey, and their pups Runt, Claudette, and Stinky. But those five wolves weren't along. Princess had come along to make sure nothing happened to Runt, her younger mate. A powerful Beta wolf called Claws was also with them.

"What exactly is going on?" Claws asked, for she had not been briefed on the situation yet, like the others had. And she hadn't heard the rumors of the lone wolf yet either.

"The other wolves in the pack have been whispering about seeing a lone female wolf near the river that separates the East and West," Kate explained.

"And I've heard others whispering about seeing this lone wolf as far away as the border of Jasper Park," Humphrey added. "Not just near the border of the Western Territory."

"Wait, wait," Claws butted in. "Are you say-"

"-that this female could have come from Banff?" Runt finished for her. "That she is a rogue?!"

"Yes, I am," Kate said. "But I have no idea why just a rogue could come this far from Banff all alone."

"Why?" Stinky asked.

"She wouldn't be the first rogue to come here all alone," Claudette said. "Princess and Melissa became came here all alone a year ago, before the war with King's pack."

"Banff is over a hundred miles from here," Princess said. She was a former rogue who knew what making that journey was like. It was Hell, to be brief. "I barely made it here on my own and not just because of two rogues who had decided to follow me. The environment is tough for a lone wolf, even one like myself. Melissa is lucky to have made it here. She is no different. But I don't see how anyone else could possibly do what Melissa and I have done. Twice, in my case!" she shouted.

"Calm, dear," Runt said to his mate. He ran his nose through her mane, hoping that would help relax her. If not, well Runt knew what would, but that suggestive thought was better left unspoken unless only between himself and Princess. _Might be some more puppies running around, though_, he thought to himself.

"Let's just hurry up and get there," Kate told the small group. "We aren't that far away from where she was last spotted."

* * *

><p>A lone she-wolf was frantically screaming as she ran toward the river. She was from Banff and knew that she was heading for the territory of her pack's enemies, but she didn't care. Not after everything she had been through in her homeland of Banff. She was covered in the blood of her fellow rogues, good amounts of it, and she saw what had happened to those wolves every time she closed her eyes or fell asleep. It was haunting her, almost.<p>

Just as the bloody she-wolf was about to jump over the flowing river, she heard a familiar female voice shout her name. She froze immediately.

"MaKayla!" It was Princess, who sounded angry at first. But when Princess and the others saw the blood all over MaKayla, Princess's tone changed and it was the group of Jasper wolves' turn to freeze. None of them were angry about seeing a former rogue here now, when she was covered in this much blood.

"W-What happened to you?" Kate stammered. She remembered who this rogue was—the murderer of Nars, her son in-law Fleet's father—but she almost didn't care in this moment. None of them did. Clearly something bad had happened in Banff. The blood all over MaKayla's light gray body told them that.

"A-Are you hurt?" Princess asked.

"NO!" MaKayla screamed. "I may be fine, but not everyone else in Banff is!"

"What?" Princess almost gasped.

"DEAD!" MaKayla roared. "Everyone in Banff is DEAD except for me! They were all ripped apart and eaten alive!"


	2. MaKayla's Story Begins

**Chapter 1:**

**MaKayla's Story Begins**

MaKayla was now in the Alpha den, lying unconscious. She had passed out after screaming about her feeling rogues being dead and eaten alive. She had not had a chance to tell them what all happened before falling into unconsciousness.

In the middle of the Alpha den, where Kate and Humphrey lived together, MaKayla was lying on a large blanket of moss and grass. A blind female Omega called Daria was at MaKayla's side, just to keep the former rogue calm, unconscious or not. Daria was good keeping other wolves calm, just by using her words more than her actions. Surely, MaKayla would need a good amount of comforting when consciousness returned to the rogue wolf. If it ever did. She had been in this state for a few hours now and had yet to show any signs of coming out of it.

Daria and the other wolves who were in the Alpha den could only watch MaKayla as she whimpered in her catatonic state. She would sometimes kick with her hind legs, but other than that, she had not moved at all since fainting. She had also yet to utter a word since fainting. And the Jasper wolves who had found her screaming, all of whom were in this den now, had no idea when the rogue would wake up. But they hoped it would be soon, as they needed to know what exactly happened in Banff. Her vague screamed statement was not enough to tell them exactly what happened. They had not yet washed the blood off of MaKayla, as it would be risky to bathe an unconscious wolf. She could think she was being attacked and hurt them. Or she could hurt herself unintentionally, but thrashing around in the river or drowning.

"What do you think really happened to the rogues?" Magril asked. Her older brother, Fleet, was by her side, as was his mate Claudette, the oldest pup of Kate and Humphrey. They were in the same den as the rogue who had ordered their father, Nars, executed with their good friend Ed, during the war with the Banff wolves. But since something horrible had clearly happened to MaKayla and the rogues, now was not the best time to hold a grudge against their father's murder when she could be the only survivor of her entire pack. She had been through enough and did not need any more stress right now.

"I don't know," Kate said. "I really don't. But I know that something horrible happened to those wolves, if only one of them is still alive. I cannot begin to imagine anything that could successfully kill an entire wolf pack, other than just one member of it, especially if that wolf pack is King's pack. They're all Alphas…I can't imagine how they all died except for MaKayla."

"Disease, maybe?" Daria suggested.

"I don't see how," Claws said.

"What do you mean?" the blind wolf asked.

"MaKayla told us that they were all 'ripped apart and eaten alive'," Humphrey told her. "She didn't have a chance to tell us what killed them, but no disease tears wolves apart, eats them alive, and leaves one survivor soaked in the blood of the others."

"Then what do you think happened?" Daria asked huffily.

"Cannibalism, maybe?" Fleet suggested. "Maybe food was short in Banff and some of the rogues went in sane as a result. They just started fighting amongst, killing, and then eating each other until only MaKayla was left. She fled Banff for Jasper, seeing no other option."

"He may be right," Princess agreed.

"Well, we won't really know what happened in Banff until MaKayla wakes up," Kate interrupted the discussion. "Cannibalism is possible, but we can't assume anything—"

"NO!" MaKayla screamed suddenly, causing all of the wolves to jump away from her, they were so started. Except for Daria, who had not a chance to. She did not do it with entirely with intention, but the blood-soaked rogue clawed Daria across the shoulder as she screamed and cursed loudly. The blind Omega yelped then ran over to Runt, whom she had always felt safe with, even when he had just been a puppy trying to help her find her pack. "Get away! Get away! And stay away, you undead bastards!"

"Calm down, MaKayla!" Princess barked. "Calm down before you hurt someone else like you did Daria! If you claw me, I will skin you alive until you're naked."

The rogue stopped screaming and defending herself (with no point to do so, not that she realized such) immediately. MaKayla laid down in a posture of submission and apologized to Daria for clawing into her shoulder. Runt was busy licking the wound gently.

"Now that you're awake and maybe sane, do you think you'll be able to tell us what really happened in Banff, so we can stop speculating about it?" Kate asked MaKayla. "What's that about 'undead bastards'?"

"Undead," MaKayla replied sourly.

"You mean like zombies?" Claws gasped then she stopped believing the rogue. She remembered MaKayla only for ordering Nars and Ed to be executed. "Or maybe vampires? Wait, no, evil spirits! Ghosts! Mummies! Walking skeletons! Hell, I'd settle with a wraith or a poltergeist! Oooh, are you afraid of a little voodoo being performed around dead things, MaKayla? Oh, give me a break! I'd rather sleep than hear about this shit. Come back to Jasper when you have an explanation that could actually happen." She laid down. "Undead, my ass," she scoffed.

"Listen to me, you stupid bitch," MaKayla growled. "Do you want to know what happened or not, or are you going to keep on taunting me? I know what I saw!"

Claws shot up immediately, ready to fight and do some tearing of throats, starting with this wolf whom she had never liked to begin with. Not even when MaKayla had been a member of the Eastern Pack."Yes, I do," Claws said bitterly.

"Then keep your fucking mouth shut and listen to me," MaKayla snapped. "I'm _this_ close to breaking it!"

"You're the one who already hurt Daria!" Runt barked. "I'll stop you myself if you even think about hurting anyone else!"

"Just get on with it already," Princess growled at her. "Or else…"

"ENOUGH!" Kate howled, effectively silencing the quarreling group, even MaKayla. "MaKayla, tell them what happened. _Now_."

"Well, it began when Scava and some other wolves, myself included, found a few missing wolves," MaKayla began. The Jasper wolves watched and listened intently. "They were dead and half-eaten. We had no idea what did it but we found out the next day…"


	3. Dead Rogues

**Chapter 2:**

**Dead Rogues**

A large male wolf called Scava was leading a small group of his fellow rogues through the forest located within their pack's territory, which was basically the entire park of Banff. No other wolf pack lived there, as King and his followers had driven them out all years ago. A large female called Alicia was by his side—she was his Scava's mate. MaKayla and her mate Ronnie were there as well, as was MaKayla's good and old friend Geoff, and his mate Amanda.

They had been sent by the Alpha male and Alpha female of their pack, King and Queen, their unofficial names, to track down a small group of wolves who had left to scout Banff for prey. They had yet to return from their mission and King wanted them found _now_, at any cost.

"I say they left the park," Geoff spat. "I had always sensed something strange about the way these wolves acted, especially around King and Queen."

"What are you saying, dear?" Amanda asked her mate, who would soon become the father of their puppies. She had just revealed her pregnancy to him only days earlier, when she had finally been sure about having puppies growing within her womb.

"I'm saying that they acted as if they had wanted to betray King and Queen for some time," Geoff explained, not just to Amanda but to the group as a whole. "And now they've done so under the excuse of a scouting mission! I say we hunt them all down and kill every one of them brutally as soon as we find them!"

"And they'd better fucking pray that we _don't_ find them," a male wolf called Dallas said. He was naturally a rough talker, rarely avoiding use of profane words whenever he spoke. He could rarely go a sentence, even a fragment, without uttering some sort of profanity whenever he opened his mouth. "I'd tear all of their throats out before they knew what happened, if they have betrayed King and Queen. It will be the last fucking thing any of those fools do."

"I agree," MaKayla said. "Make 'em suffer for betraying our pack and its leaders."

"As do I," said Deborah, another female. "King and Queen won't tolerate traitors in their pack."

"Wait, wait," Scava said suddenly. Everyone recognized his shocking, almost unnaturally, deep voice right away.

"What is it?" asked Terry, another male.

"I smell wolves," Scava told the small group. "And blood, too." The black-furred wolf sniffed the air powerfully.. "And death…the odor of death is strong, all around us. It smells as if something died in a circle around is and is rotting."

"I have a feel feeling about this in the pit of my stomach," MaKayla said. "I smell blood and death, too. I don't think these missing wolves are missing because they wanted to betray our pack. They may be why we smell death all around us…"

"Just follow me and stop talking," Scava ordered. "We'll find out soon enough if we follow the scent. Do not forget that King put me in charge of this search group."

"Let's just hope it won't become a search-and-rescue group or a recovery group," MaKayla muttered under her breath as the group of nine wolves ran through the forest in one mass, just as they would on a hunt. It was only for the safety of all the members of the group and nothing else.

MaKayla was now in front of the group as they ran down a marked tree—marked as in marked territory. She decided to run up the nearby hillside and get up on top of a fallen tree, or a log, but that did not really matter, to get a better view around the area as the other eight sniffed, claws, and ran about trying to find the trail again. They could still smell the blood and death but they had no idea how to locate it. MaKayla looked around a bit. She could smell the same odors even more strongly now, as if she was standing right over it. She looked down and saw nothing but leaves and bushes.

MaKayla vanished suddenly with a loud yelp and a crashing sound. She had not realized that she had used a rotten log as a platform but she had just found out the hard way when it had collapsed underneath her. She fell into the bushes and shrubbery below, and landed with a thud that almost knocked her senseless.

When she came to, MaKayla was almost afraid to open her eyes. She had a face full of something wet and squishy—it reeked of a bloody and rotten odor. She was familiar with this scent from hunts in which they come across rotting caribou carcass. She swore she had two nostrils full of blood and guts shoved up her nose, the smell was so powerful. She felt something dripping down her face and almost expected it to be saliva of a predator standing over her, a thought that made her dread having to eventually open her eyes animal.

_Oh, it's a grizzly bear!_ MaKayla just. _I just know it! Better leave my last wishes…_

But nothing happened to her after a few minutes, in which her fellow rogues had not found her yet, so she decided to open her eyes, as much as she did not want to, over the fear of what she may see upon doing so. There was no grizzly bear—it was not saliva of any predator dripping down her light gray face but blood. MaKayla found herself staring at the bloody and rotting entrails of a wolf. The entire body was severely mutilated and the wolf's blood was not only all over MaKayla's face but the clearing in which she had fallen down into as well. She just knew that those entrails were draped over her head after crashing face-first into the rotting remains. And she screamed. MaKayla had never screamed in her life before, like she had now.


	4. Encounter in the Forest

**Chapter 3:**

**Encounter in the Forest**

"MaKayla!" Geoff called, as the other rogues ran about the forest trying to find her. They had not noticed MaKayla go up onto the rotten log or her fall into the bushes below with the mutilated bodies of their fellow rogues. They did not even know that those bodies were there or that MaKayla was now running through the forest, not caring if it was away from her group. She just wanted to get out of the area—she could not imagine what could mutilate all of the wolves like that. She had seen wolves get ripped apart by a pissed off mama grizzly bear and be left in better condition than those bodies had been.

MaKayla did not want to go back that way. She feared that whatever had killed them was still in that area, which was a tight space because of all the bushes. She had heard about overly powerful wolves getting killed by something or someone weaker than they were only because they got caught with that something or someone in a small space. She was not afraid to die, but MaKayla would be damned if she died in a small space because of a foolish mistake. She was not a stupid wolf and refused to die because of stupidity or foolishness.

But what could have killed them like that? MaKayla had never seen any animal mutilated like that before now. She did not even know if any animal she knew of could mutilate several wolves like that. The most horrifying fact was that, upon the close encounter she had had with the corpses, the wounds to the bones looked as if another wolf, or wolves, had been there and gnawed on the bones. She knew that cannibalism was always possible among wolves, but why would it happen in Banff, where was there more than enough prey, still, for there to be no reason to have cannibalism to occur? The wolves had no reason to kill and consume each other. They had plenty of caribou and other animals to call prey rather than other wolves!

"MaKayla!" It was Geoff calling for her again. His voice was not as loud as it had been the first time he had called for her, as she was heading further _away_ from her oldest friend. She did not dare go back that was as she was damn sure whatever had killed her fellow pack members would get her if she did. There were always more ways to find her way back to the proper part of her territory, she was sure. Taking the long way back home was better than ending up like those poor SOBs, with their guts ripped out and their bodies half-eaten. She would rather have to explain to King and Queen why she ran off rather than get eaten alive by…who knows what?

"Where are you, MaKayla?" It was Scava who called for her that time. And, once again, she ignored the calls, just intending to get out of this damn forest alive before she became the next meal to whatever it was that had made a meal of those wolves in the bushes. MaKayla not only refused to die but also refused to be cannibalized by other wolves.

As MaKayla lunged over a tree branch blocking her path, she thought about who those cannibalistic wolves could possibly be. She landed on a trail that led deeper into the forest. But it was a wider open part of the forest and that was all MaKayla cared about. That and getting out of this forest alive. But back to the possibility of cannibalistic wolves, she knew that there was no way in Hell that it was members of her pack. MaKayla was smart enough to know that her pack members had _no_ reason to go cannibalistic. It had to be outsiders—she just knew it had to be outsiders!

"No," MaKayla gasped. "Oh, no, no, no." She heard a branch snap and something walking slowly through the forest. It was coming toward MaKayla, probably following the sound of her paws hitting the path as she ran down it and the sound of her heavy breaths. She was almost exhausted, already, from running so fast and so far in a short amount of time. MaKayla had already traversed a third of the forest without incident but now she heard slow-moving footsteps coming toward her from not only one direction but all around her. It was not too many pairs of feet, though. Maybe no more than five. Still, that did very little to comfort MaKayla. One or five, she was still in danger.

But MaKayla was sure about one thing as she hid with a log, a piece of a fallen tree, hoping these wolves would not become aware of her existence. She saw no other option but to hide inside this log, as there was nowhere else to go. She not only knew these five beings were wolves but felt in her gut that they were the same wolves who had cannibalized her fellow pack members. MaKayla had never been this scared in her life. Her heart was racing and she was already experiencing a cold sweat. Her blood ran cold as she crawled further back into the log. MaKayla gasped quietly when she felt her tail make contact with something behind her. It was a dead end! She was cornered and trapped now, with at least five murderous wolves coming closer to her!

MaKayla closed her eyes but it was no longer the sight of the five wolves that terrified her. It was the mixed odor of death and the scent of the wolves who had killed her pack members that did. But there was an even more disturbing fact in that scent of those wolves, even more disturbing than the odor of death was. These wolves who were seemingly hunting MaKayla were not outsiders but members of her pack! She had recognized their scents long before she had recognized their faces. But why would they kill wolves from the same pack and consume their flesh? MaKayla just did not understand it!

"No, no, no, no," MaKayla whimpered as those five wolves moved closer and closer toward the trapped she-wolf, who was so frozen with fear that she felt like a wolf-shaped block of ice. MaKayla just knew that her life was over, that she would die trapped within this log. She could already picture in her mind being pulled out of those log by those five cannibalistic wolves, and then getting ripped apart and eaten by members of her own species.

"MaKayla!" The trapped wolf heard another female call her name. "Where are you?"

MaKayla recognized the voice. It was Amanda, the mate of her good friend Geoff. She sensed that Amanda was nearby, so MaKayla decided to call out for help before it was too late for her. But she did not have a chance before she heard Amanda's voice again.

"Get away, you brutes!" MaKayla heard Amanda order the wolves. "Damn you, I say get away!" It struck MaKayla as strange that the wolves did not utter words in response to Amanda's order but moaned incoherently in response instead. It was a moan that sent chills down the spines of both MaKayla and Amanda. Neither of these she-wolves had ever heard such a horrific moan before. Not even from a wolf suffering from a seizure or a stroke.

MaKayla also sensed that these five strange-acting wolves were no longer coming after her. They were going after Amanda! She knew she had to help her friend's mate, who had just learned of her pregnancy. So MaKayla quickly rushed out of the long to see Amanda screaming at the slow-moving wolves. But, no matter what orders Amanda shouted at them, they just kept moving closer and closer to her.

Geoff appeared in a clearing with the other six wolves when it happened. First, Amanda screamed, and then blood sprayed. The other wolves could not believe what they saw take place before their eyes. One of these wolves who smelled like something that had been long dead just took a bite out of Amanda's shoulder! She screamed louder than ever as flesh was torn from her right shoulder, right down to the bone. Blood gushed from her wound as this wolf swallowed the raw chunk of flesh and fur whole in one loud gulp.

"Amanda, run!" Geoff screamed. He immediately attacked the wolf who had wounded his mate as soon as she was out of the way. She cowered on the ground, as the other wolves of her search group surrounded her, and they watched Geoff tackle the wolf to the ground. He crushed its head against a nearby rock. Scava, Dallas, Ronnie, and Terry recovered their wits enough to do the same to the other four wolves before any of them saw it coming. And no one else was wounded by them.

As soon as things calmed down, Geoff went to his mate, who was still bleeding from her shoulder and screaming at the top of her longs. It was a hellish pain that she could not bear. None of her fellow pack members could bear to look at her gruesome wound. It made them sick to their stomachs. Geoff had never seen anything like what he just witnessed before in his life. None of them had.

And they would all be in for a worse surprise tomorrow…


	5. Another Victim

**Chapter 4:**

**Another Victim**

"I'm going to be alright, Geoff," Amanda told her frantic mate as he paced around the den of the pack healers. It was the same day that she had her shoulder ripped off, but five hours after that bloody incident in the forest.

Geoff doubted that Amanda would be alright. At least not right away. Within the forest hour after suffering her injury, Amanda had experienced a severe pain in and discoloration of her shoulder. The wound had also strangely clotted up and was no longer bleeding when it should still be.

And that was not the only strange symptoms Amanda was experiencing. Within the past four hours, she had begun suffering from a fever of 99 to 103 degrees F, increasing by one degree for each of those hours after it had suddenly rise 12.5 degrees above her normal body temperature of 86.5 degrees F. It was also clear that Amanda was suffering from chills, in addition to other minor yet concerning symptoms. Amanda would occasionally vomit, with this symptom being most common whenever she consumed any food source or even water. Then there was her slight dementia—she would forget certain things and remember others. Then she would remember the things she had just forgotten and forget the things she had just remembered. Lastly, Amanda was experiencing acute pain in her joints—all four of her limbs and her tail—that made it difficult for her to walk or even get up.

"You already know that you are sick," Geoff argued. "The pack healers told you that you have a fever and chills. You keep remembering and forgetting things, too. And, not to mention the vomiting and the pain in your joints!" Geoff turned to the pack healers just to further convince his mate that she was ill. "What does all of that sound like to you?" he asked the two she-wolves. "Hmm?"

"If she is lucky," the larger of the two sisters said, "then I would say Amanda has contracted some sort of flu virus from her injury. She'll obviously get worse before she gets better, but I can promise you that she'll slowly improve once her illness reaches its peak of how bad it'll get. Just leave her with us for a while."

"What?" Geoff gasped. "Why would I leave her? She's my mate! My _pregnant_ mate!"

"It's late," the other female said. "You should head back to your den and get some sleep, if you can. We'll make sure Amanda does, too. And we'll make sure she's alright when you come to see her again."

"Fine," Geoff growled. "I'll be back tomorrow as soon as I've dealt with everything us Alphas must on a daily basis. You had better take good care of her," he threatened. "She is carrying puppies. Don't either of you forget that."

* * *

><p>Geoff rushed back to the den of the pack healers the next day, early in the afternoon. And he saw Amanda in a much worse state than when he had left her last night. It was at least fourteen hours since that bloody incident in the forest in which she was hurt by one of those strange-acting wolves. Geoff's jaw hit the den floor. He could tell, just by looking at her, that Amanda's lower body was paralyzed. It was not moving at all, not even a rare twitch, and it was in an awkward position, even if she was lying on her back.<p>

But he learned of the other two symptoms not by examining his mate but by hearing it from the two pack healers as soon as he approached them. Her body was numb overall a well, according to the sisters, and she had a slowed-down heart rate. Six hours earlier, also according to the sisters, Amanda had suffered from numbing of her limbs, tail, and wounded shoulder. Her fever was now 112 degrees F. And, as if all of these changes were not bad enough, Amanda's dementia had worsened and she had lost most of her muscular coordination. Amanda had gone from being a perfectly healthy wolf to being nothing more than a ground-ridden invalid in just fourteen hours.

Neither Geoff nor the two pack healers had ever seen a wolf's health decline so quickly just because of a severe shoulder wound inflicted by another wolf. Sure, wolves' mouths were full of bacteria, but not even the dirtiest wolf mouth could cause any wolf's health to decline so rapidly and so severely. Not even for a wolf who had a weak immune system would be this ill. And Amanda's immune system was anything but one. She actually had one of the strongest in the pack, so all three of the healthy wolves had ruled that possibility out quickly last night.

"How could this have happened over one night and part of a day?!" Geoff howled miserably. "Were neither of you able to take care of her IN THAT TIME LIKE?" he snarled.

"We did our best!" the smaller sister pleaded. "She just kept getting worse and worse as time went by. Nothing we did helped her! I swear, we did try to help your wife, we really did!"

Geoff lost it—he began cursing, foaming at the mouth, and screaming at the top of his lungs. Not at the pack healers—he was not angry with them as they had done their best, clearly—but angry about what was happening. And Geoff's rants got much worse two hours later, when he watched his pregnant mate slip into a coma. But when Geoff and the pack healers thought her condition could not get any worse and that her health should improve, they were proven wrong once again, just four hours after Amanda had went into a coma. She was one step from death—the pack healers told Geoff that they could find no heart or brain activity when they examined her.

"She's dead," Geoff wailed. "And so are our unborn pups. She just told me that she was pregnant and NOW THIS!" he roared.

Three hours later, almost an entire day since Amanda suffered her injury and after her had begun declining, Geoff was in tears at the mouth of the den. It was night and raining now, two facts that made Geoff feel so much worse. Amanda had died an hour ago and his grief was so great that he failed to notice Amanda's body moving on its own. She was shifting and trying to get up.

When Amanda sat up suddenly, both of the pack healers began screaming. Before Geoff could react and turn around, the chaos behind him was over fast. He turned around reluctantly to face a bloody scene. One of the pack healers was dead, her belly ripped open and guts strung out all over the floor of the cave. Amanda was lifeless once again, her head caved in against a sharp rock jutting from the floor of the den.

"W-What…happened?!" Geoff screamed.

"S-She returned to life…and killed my sister," the larger of the two pack healers said. "I had to do what I do or she would have killed us too…"


	6. A Short Conversation

**Chapter 5:**

**A Short Conversation**

"What do you think really happened?" King asked Dallas, who was probably the most levelheaded of the wolves who had witnessed what happened to MaKayla and Amanda in the forest a few days earlier. Geoff was off somewhere mourning his dead mate Amanda. And none of the others wanted to be questioned about what happened in the forest, particularly MaKayla. None even Scava wanted to be questioned. He just wanted to keep Alicia calm. His mate was severely shaken up by what she had seen. They all were. None of them had ever seen anything like that before.

"I don't know," Dallas said. "Those wolves…they moved slower than snails and moaned like drunken wolves. One of them…h-he tore Amanda's shoulder clean off, right down to the bone. And h-he swallowed it whole!"

"And Amanda is dead now," Queen said in a shaky voice. "What do you think happened to her?"

"Only Geoff and Shana can answer that question," Dallas said. "But I doubt either of them want to talk about it. Geoff had to watch his pregnant wife die and Shauna had to watch her sister get her guts ripped out of her. Can you really blame them for avoiding the question?"

"What about MaKayla?" King asked.

"Hell no," Dallas said. "Do you know that it's like to be trapped in a log and having to watch five cannibalistic wolves shamble towards you while having nowhere to run? I'll ask you that same question when it happens to either of you."

"So you are the only wolf we'll get to talk about what happened?" Queen asked. "At least for now."

"Yes." Dallas nodded. "Now if you excuse me, I must go see how Debora is taking things. She has no one other than me to talk to. No mate and no family. I'm her only true friend who is still sane enough to keep her calm."

"You can go," King said. Dallas left King and Queen's den without uttering another word to either of them.

"What are we going to do about this?" Queen asked her mate. "I've never heard of wolves who move and moan like that. And Amanda…I've never heard about a wolf dying just because she was wounded by another…and then returning to life? What is this we are dealing with?"

"I wish we had an answer to that question," King sighed. "This feels like something out of those horror stories we used to tell each other when all of us we were young Eastern wolves at The Howling Rock. This is already reminding me more and more of that horror story about zombies."

"Excuse me?" Queen said.

"You know, the one about zombies attacking in numbers so great that the world almost ended…"

"I know, I know," Queen cut him off. "But what is this talk about zombies. That's just some old horror story passed down from generation-to-generation for hundreds of years to scare each other with at night. Maybe thousands of years," she corrected herself. "Who knows how many times the wording of that horror story has been scrambled in all the years it has been told. It's not like us wolves can write anything down to keep it more accurate!"

"I just see no other explanation," King explained himself. "The way Dallas described the ways who attached MaKayla and Amanda is exactly how the zombies are described in the horror stories. Those are tales I will never forget the details of those stories. And then what happened to Amanda in the healers' den…"

"I get the point," Queen said dryly. "And here is what we should do about it. I want you to order the strongest Alphas of our pack to be on watch for a few nights, to see if there are any of these wolves wandering around where us wolves sleep at night. If there isn't by the full moon, then there will be no need for them to be on watch anymore. I will see no reason to suspect incident by that time."


	7. Paranoia

**Chapter 6:**

**Paranoia**

Terry was one of the nine—now eight, after the sudden death of Amanda—wolves who had witnessed the events in the forest. Being the paranoid wolf he was, Terry was over the edge because of what he had witnessed in the forest. And with what happened to Amanda and Shauna (the dead pack healer) in the healers' den the next night, he was even worse off now.

Because he had no mate, Terry was all alone in his den at night or whenever he was in it. That was difficult for him to do now, after what had occurred in the past few days, but he was getting by, as difficult as it was for him. Just getting to sleep at night, when he had no one to watch over him, was bad enough. Whenever Terry fell asleep, or even just closed his eyes, he could see what happened in the forest again. It was in the form of flashbacks whenever he closed his eyes and in the form of hellish nightmares whenever he fell asleep.

Tonight was no different from all of the other nights since that incident. Terry woke up screaming as a result of the same nightmare once again, which was for at least the third time. He had a nightmare about that incident at least once a night, if not more. Terry sat up quickly, felt his body as if he doubted he were still alive, and looked around his den, as if he expected to see those wolves from the forest all around him. As he circled around his medium-sized den, Terry wondered he would ever get over having these constant nightmares. He would probably go see Kara tomorrow, even if the now lone pack healer still grieving her sister, who was killed Amanda, after the sick she-wolf had seemingly died and come back to life. He hoped that Kara would be lucid enough, despite her sister's brutal death, to tell Terry what was wrong with him. All Terry knew was that his changed behavior had something to do with that incident in the forest but he had no idea what it was.

Only minutes later, Terry began to wonder if he would ever fall back asleep. It normally did not take him long to fall asleep. He also began wondering if it was just his memories of that hellish incident or something more. All Terry did know was that he was beginning to regret doing into that forest to help find those missing wolves whom they had learned were dead when MaKayla had gotten a face full of their rotting intestines. And what happened to her after that, when she found herself hiding in a log.

It was pitch black out and storming, so none of Terry's fellow members were outside of their dens at this time. (Not because of the darkness, as wolves could see in the dark as well as they could in the daytime.) It was a powerful rainstorm, with loud crashes of thunder, intense rainfall striking the ground, and the occasional lightning strike. Terry heard all of this while no one else did because he was still awake, while no one else was. The rogues were naturally heavy sleepers, so it took more than a storm, even a powerful one like what was occurring now, to wake them up. MaKayla was known for sleeping through the sounds of gunshots.

But it was not just the noises of the rainstorm that Terry heard, he realized now. The gray wolf heard an unsettling moaning sound that reminded him of the moan let out by those wolves who had attacked MaKayla and Amanda in the forest. He just knew it was the wind blowing, but that did not make Terry feel any better about the sound. It reminded him too much of those wolves' moans, no matter how often he thought against it. It made him wish he was deaf, the moaning of the wind bothered him so much.

"Who's there?" Terry gasped when he thought he heard another wolf outside his den. He smelled a female, a member of his pack, from what may be just right outside his den. But the scent of the rain made it difficult for him to be entirely sure about where that she-wolf could be. What he could not figure out was how the she-wolf was and why she was moving around outside of his den. During a rainstorm, no less! He had no mate, no sisters, no cousins, and no mother, so there were no she-wolves who had any sort of connection with or interest in him.

The female wolf outside his den did not answer. He heard her continue to move around outside, as the wind continued to remind him of those wolves' unearthly moans, with the way it was howling loudly. That moaning was a sound Terry had never heard before in his life and he never wanted to hear it again. Terry did not even want to be reminded of it with the wind blowing.

"I said who's there?" Terry asked more forcefully. Again, he received no answer and that caused him to lose it suddenly. "Damn it! If I have to come out there and find you, whoever you are, you will regret being outside of _my_ den!"

Terry barked aggressively as he darted out of his den, hellbent on finding out who this she-wolf was. But he did not see her right away, when he got outside of his den, even if he could still hear her moving around slowly. Somewhere he could not find but swore he would, even if it meant he had to be up all night to find her! Terry was beginning to get pissed off and was very tempted to find her only to tear her damn throat out then bury her in the mud up to her neck.

"Where the hell are you?" Terry barked. No answer for a third time and he lost what little common sense he had not lost before now. Terry ran away from the part of their territory where all of the wolves lived, just to follow the sound of this she-wolf's movements.

It was louder now, near the edge of the forest. The same forest where MaKayla was almost killed and where Amanda suffered the injury that led to her death. The moaning was louder and Terry realized that it was more than just the wind howling. This moan made Terry's blood run cold immediately, when he realized that it was_ not_ the wind but something much worse. Much deadlier.

And when he turned to face the entrance of the forest due to a feeling of being watched, Terry screamed briefly as a she-wolf came toward him slowly.


	8. Searching for an Unstable Wolf

**Chapter 7:**

**Searching for an Unstable Wolf**

Only seven of the eight surviving witnesses to the incident in the forest were present for the meeting called by King and Queen. They were all there except for Terry, whom many wolves had been claiming to hear yelling at another wolf last night before disappearing without a trace. But no one had seen him since, after hearing him screaming at or about something. That was why King and Queen had ordered these seven wolves to come to their den.

"It isn't like Terry to just disappear for no reason at all," MaKayla said.

"He has been acting like an entirely different wolf ever since we went into the forest," Alicia said. Her mate, Scava was by her sister, as always. He had not left her side since the once nine wolves had gone into the forest looking for the once missing and now deceased wolves.

"How so?" Ronnie asked. MaKayla, like Alicia, had not left her mate's side ever since her near-death encounter in the forest because she was too afraid and paranoid to go anywhere without him or her old friend Geoff by her side. She almost did not dare to, with the fear that she would be killed by wolves just like the ones who had attacked her and forced her to hide inside a log.

"He had been acting more paranoid and stressed about everything ever since we entered that forest," Geoff told him. "I was the first to notice his changed behavior."

"I noticed his odd behavior as well," Scava said. "He wouldn't even acknowledge my presence when I bumped into him yesterday at sunset. He had been acting like a wolf who had eaten far too berries."

"What did you bring the seven of us here for?" Debora asked.

"You all know Terry better than anyone," King explained, "so I want all of you to go find him. Be careful out there…after what happened to you all in the forest and Amanda as a result. And Terry, you have no idea how he'll react to your presence, if he's been up all night without any sleep."

* * *

><p>"Terry!" MaKayla howled as the wolves looked all around the area surrounding Terry's den. The seven wolves had split up into two separate groups to make looking for their missing friend easier.<p>

The smaller group (made up of MaKayla, Geoff, and Ronnie) was following Terry's scent trail close and close to the southern entrance of the forest when they came across something alarming.

"Blood," Geoff whispered. "It's everywhere." He sniffed it and recognized the scent immediately, due to a hunt that had resulted in Terry's blood being shed all over Geoff's face. It had even gotten into Geoff's nostrils, which was why he was familiar with the scent.

"Who's blood?" Ronnie asked.

"It's Terry's blood," Geoff replied immediately, in a low voice. All wolves knew to keep their voices low when they found blood belonging to one of their own.

"And the trail may just lead us to him," MaKayla whispered. "Come on," she ordered the two male wolves, both of whom she outranked even if they were all Alphas.

"What about the others?" Geoff asked her, as she got up off her belly and stalked toward the entrance of the forest as if she were stalking prey on a hunt. He rarely questioned MaKayla's judgment as she had more sense and experience than the rest of the pack, other than King and Queen, of course. If she had more experience than those two, then she would be the pack leader instead of them.

"Fuck 'em," MaKayla said in a harsh whisper. "Scava is leading them on a damn rat race and we've found an actual lead, so let's follow it while they're following their own tails."

MaKayla darted down the trailer of blood, as did the two male wolves. They did not want to leave her alone again. Not after what almost happened to her once in this same forest only a few days earlier.

"Terry!" Geoff called, not that any of them expected an immediate response, especially if he was hurt.

A low moan hit the wolves' ears and they quickly froze in their tracks.

"Did you hear that?" MaKayla went back to speaking in a whisper.

"Yes," the two males answered her, in whispers as well.

"The same moan of those cannibalistic wolves who almost killed me," MaKayla whispered. "I think we can figure out what may have happened to…"

"TERRY!" Geoff screamed suddenly. The rest of the group came running as a result of that screaming just in time to see Terry shambling about near a gory mess of flesh and internal organs. They belonged to Terry, the wolves realized with horrified expressions.

Yet, before the seven wolves' eyes, Terry seemed to still be alive and moving around despite his injuries that obviously should have been fatal long ago. It reminded them all of the wolves who almost killed MaKayla. And that was why the survivors left, as a mutilated yet still living Terry began shambling toward the group. They had no reason to stick around now.


	9. Talk of Zombies

**Chapter 8:**

**Talk of Zombies**

There was only one wolf who MaKayla could talk to about everything. It was not her mate Ronnie but her first true friend Geoff. They had grown up together, knowing each other from the day they had first been able to see as puppies. She would _never_ be close to anyone more than she was to Geoff. No one could replace him. Never. She had more good and bad memories with him than she had with her mate, her siblings, and her parents all together. Geoff was like a brother to MaKayla, something which she had none of. She had been born into a litter of only females.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Geoff asked MaKayla as she said down on her belly, resting her front legs in front of her. She crossed them. Geoff, however, continued to set up on his hindquarters.

"Yes," MaKayla said. "It's about everything that has happened in the past few days. First, what almost happened to me in that forest. I could have very easily been the one in Amanda's place, not that I wish that fate on her or anyone else. Then there is what happened in the healers' den two days ago. And Terry…how do you explain what we just saw? He shouldn't have been alive, with all of those injuries!"

"I wish I knew," Geoff said. "Amanda…she was carrying our pups. I lost more than just my mate! And we don't even know why these wolves are acting like this! Those five in the forest who killed our scouts, then Amanda, and now another wolf like those ones in the forest. Who's next? You?"

"I'll be damned if they ever get me," MaKayla growled. She stood up on all fours in an aggressive posture, with her tail raised and fangs bared. "They got Terry and others but I'll be the LAST wolf they kill."

"What do you think is going on?" Geoff asked MaKayla when she finally relaxed and lay down on her belly again.

"You won't want to hear what I've been thinking could be the answer to that question," she replied.

"I'm willing to hear and believe about anything at this point, after what has happened in the past few days," he told her.

"You know those horror stories we used to tell at The Howling Rock before we all came to Banff?" MaKayla asked him. Geoff nodded but said nothing. "Well, all of these events remind me of the one about…"

"What?" Geoff did not understand why she stopped mid-sentence.

"The horror story about zombies," MaKayla continued. "All of this reminds of those horror stories about zombies, particularly the one about how the word nearly ended because of a zombie outbreak that happened a thousand years ago in Jasper Park. I had always thought they were nothing more than old scary stories passed down orally through the generations. Until I was stuck in that log, watching those wolves and the way they moved…it almost made me believe zombies are real.

"Then with Amanda dying because of a shoulder wound and seemingly return to life to kill Shauna…that did it for me," MaKayla went on after a brief pause. "And with what happened to Terry…that makes me believe in the existence of zombies even more than I ever had in my life before we found him."

Geoff was almost speechless. MaKayla sensed it, so she just went on once again. "And I fear that it will get much worse soon," she said briefly. "Very soon."

"W-What?" Geoff stammered.

"There are more of these wolves out there than just those five we killed in the forest," she explained. "And surely more than the one that got Terry last night. Someone had to get that wolf, and someone had to get the wolf who got the one that killed Terry. And so on."

"What are you saying?" Geoff asked.

"We need to convince King and Queen to prepare for the forest before it happens," MaKayla said, "which may be _very_ soon. I fear there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of those wolves out there. And that all hell will break loose soon…"


	10. Night of the Living Dead

**Chapter 9:**

**Night of the Living Dead**

MaKayla had just told Geoff that she could be carrying puppies, that she had Ronnie had "done it," in her words, right after she had talked to her friend about the possibility of zombies in Banff. She had not planned to get pregnant last night, but Ronnie had suggested he should help relieve her stress. So MaKayla had complied and enjoyed every moment of what they had done last night, after she had left Geoff's den.

Now, the morning after all of that, MaKayla felt so much better than she had in days. And not just physically after what she did with her mate, but mentally as well. Her morale seemed to be much higher and she did not give off a feeling that made other wolves want to avoid her at all costs. Mating, for the first time in her life, had seemingly made MaKayla into a different wolf. So much of her stress and negative thoughts were gone, and now she possibly had puppies growing within her. Geoff could notice her improved mood as she told him of her possibly pregnancy.

"Are you happy for me?" MaKayla asked Geoff good-naturedly because of how speechless he was. She figured giving him a question would help him find words to use. They were in the clearing between all of the dens that filled the small mountain, which circled around this area.

"Of course I am," Geoff replied. "Just thinking."

MaKayla cocked her head. "About what?" she questioned him.

"Amanda," Geoff admitted. "She was pregnant when I lost her. And now you could be…"

"Don't worry, old friend," she cut him off. "You won't lose me. We all know what to expect and I refuse to end up like the others. Now, please, let's talk about something related to my pups."

"You want to start?" Geoff asked. He hoped this would not end up being a discussion about the pleasure she had gone through in her den last night.

"Well, I feel in my gut—pardon the unintentional pun—that I'll be having at least five pups," MaKayla said with a smile. "Five large, healthy pups. Three female and two male. I just can't wait until they're born!"

Geoff had to force a smile before he said, "That's great!" He was truly happy that his friend could be carrying puppies, but any word of a pregnant female almost instantly reminded him of Amanda, his mate who died when she was one-month pregnant.

"You don't sound overly excited for me," MaKayla said dryly.

"I am," Geoff said, "but…I just need to be alone for a while. It's about what happened to Amanda…you're pregnant, too. I'm worried about you."

"Then go, be alone," MaKayla snapped. "I don't need you here if you're going to worry about me. I'm glad you care so much but I don't like being worried about so much. I think you need to get laid with another female like I did with Ronnie last night. Look at how that changed my mood."

"I think you're right," Geoff said. He missed Amanda greatly and the thought of finding another mate almost horrified him, but knew, in the end, that MaKayla was right. He needed to relieve a good amount of stress like MaKayla had with her mate last night. So her left the area to find Kara, the surviving pack healer who was under just as much stress as he was, and he enjoyed what they did together.

* * *

><p>"You two had better have a damn good reason for convincing us to change our plans," King said harshly to MaKayla and Geoff. He did not care about telling these two what their plans were. It had to do with the recent deaths in Banff, but it was none of these two's business.<p>

"It may plan your plans pointless," MaKayla told her pack's Alpha male.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Queen snapped at them. "It better be good or we'll leave the two of you out in the forest to become a grizzly bear's next meal!"

"We may have found out what caused all of these deaths," Geoff said.

"What?!" King and Queen gasped in unison. "How?!"

"We found out when we found Terry in the forest," MaKayla explained, taking over for Geoff. "None of us were able to tell you this until now, it had horrified us all so badly. He's dead." King gasped and Queen nearly fainted because of this news. "Or should I say _undead_?"

"Excuse me?" Queen asked with confusion.

"He was a zombie," MaKayla said briefly. "Just like the ones described in those horror stories we used to always tell to each other at The Howling Rock or around fires."

Queen unexpectedly made a strange sound that was a cross between a croak and a weak, yelp-like howl. Then she fainted, falling onto her side against the hard floor of her and King's den. Her tongue slipped out of her jaws and her eyes shut tight. Nothing would bring her out of this unconscious state. Not even having ice-cold water dumped on her. This possibly explanation was too much for her Queen to handle, which was why she had fainted.

"You're joking!" King said with disbelief. He was just as shocked as Queen was, except that he did not faint. It was his shock that made him almost unaware of how she had fainted. "Please tell me you're joking!"

"Do I sound like I'm joking?" MaKayla said dryly, almost angrily. "Do I _ever_ joke about anything? I'm more serious than your daughter is, for Christ's sake. If I say someone is a zombie, you had better know that I meant it. I'm sorry to say this, but if someone doesn't believe ME when I say something, then that wolf is a damn fool. I never joke about things, especially not after more than _ten_ wolves are killed. And the way all of these wolves acted…there is no way they're not zombies."

"You didn't see them, sir," Geoff said. They both knew MaKayla would not call King "sir." Not when she was this angry. Pack law went out of the window, so to speak, for MaKayla when she was angry, as did a lot of her normal behavior. "I was in the pack healers' den when Amanda died. I'm sane enough to know that she came back to life before she killed Shauna. The healers had even told me she was dead right before it happened, so what does that tell you?"

"And Terry…he was half-eaten," MaKayla took over again, "yet he was still moving around as if he were still alive when we found him in the forest. If _that_ doesn't sound like a zombie to you, then you're going to see me scream. And it will be at you. Do you believe us now that you know what we've seen?"

"I don't know what to believe anyone, if you want me to be honest," King said with a sigh. "Zombies…I don't doubt you entirely yet the notion of zombies just sounds so unlikely at the same time. I don't want to believe this but I'm afraid I have no other option." King sighed again. "What do suggest we do, MaKayla?"

"I say that we—the four of us and the other survivors from the forest incident—go throughout Banff to warn everyone of this possible threat."

"What if they don't heed our warnings?" King asked. "I barely still believe it myself."

"Then tell them it's their funeral if they don't," MaKayla spat. "And I won't be there for it!"

* * *

><p>"Damn fools," Geoff growled to Kara, the only surviving pack healer, after her sister Shauna was killed by a seemingly undead Amanda. She was closer to Geoff after what happened to her sister and Amanda in her former den not because of what they had done in his den the day before but because they had a reason to connect to each other. They both lost someone close to them and needed comforting, something which they could easily give to the other because of their bond. Kara now lived in Geoff's den and had mated with him to help relieve both of their stresses, even if nothing would heal their wounds (from losing their loved ones) but time. A lot of time.<p>

"What happened?" Kara asked, still unaware of his efforts to warn the pack of the potential zombie threat. His vain efforts. She did not know it, but not a single wolf had believed King, Queen, or the now seven survivors from the incident in the forest. MaKayla was off cursing at the tree outside her and Ronnie's den, and probably taking chunks out of her with her jaws, while Geoff was ranting to Kara in their den.

"It's everyone in the pack," Geoff growled. "The survivors from what happened in the forest, plus our pack's leaders, couldn't even convince them of what is going on!"

"What's going on?" Kara repeated with confusion. She knew of the possible zombie threat, but had no idea if that was what Geoff was referring to or not.

"The possibility of zombies!" Geoff said loudly. Kara knew his anger was not directed at her, so she just listened. "You surely believe it as much as we do, after what happened to Amanda and your sister!"

"Yes, I believe that there are zombies in Banff," Kara told him. "After what happened to Terry, Amanda, and my sister, there's no denying it. They're all fools and I almost hope they learn the hard way why they should have believed all of you. They don't believe anything until it happens _and_ they see it for themselves. Well, they'll regret it when they do finally see it for themselves!"

"I almost feel the same way about them all," Geoff agreed. "They'll wish they believed us when all hell breaks loose!"

"AND IT IS!" came the panicked scream of a she-wolf. Geoff and Kara both recognized it as MaKayla immediately. MaKayla and Ronnie unexpectedly entered Geoff's den in a panic as intense as her scream had been. "Wolves just like those five from the forest are all over Banff now, tearing wolves apart! King, Queen, and the others who tried to warn them have already escaped."

"Why are you still here?!" Geoff gasped. "You two should have just fled with them!"

"I wasn't going to leave anyone behind if he or she has a chance!" MaKayla screamed as she tackled a zombie wolf against the wall of the cave, crushing its skull against the wall. Brain matter went everywhere, but thankfully none got into MaKayla's mouth or it would have been the end of her. "Now come on, before the horde gets you two as well!"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note:<strong> Yes, the title is a reference to the 1968 movie, which is the first movie to feature zombies like the ones in this story, but I am not a fan of that movie. I don't acknowledge its existence, but I do acknowledge the existence of the 1990 and 2006 remakes, plus the sequels to the original and any other spin-offs and remakes. (And sequels to remakes.)


End file.
